i know how ya feel. i lost my car keys recently. but, i have a spare car key. everything was cool until i was just about out of gas. i pulled in to fill up...forgot that the only key for the locking gas cap is on my main key ring. sucks big time. and, i just had to buy the most expensive locking gas cap. i tried to drive a screwdriver through the key slot and really messed things up. because now they can't simply make a new key for it ($45), but have to drain the gas tank before they take a torch to the damn thing to get it off ($500+). well, i hope you find yer faith (sooner or later).

Hey, people on welfare, conservatives would like you to know the rules. So here they are:

If / when you lose your job, be sure to sell all your nice electronics and luxury goods immediately and make sure you are always dressed well in public (but not too well, because then you are clearly not in need of any financial assistance and will be judged for not immediately selling all your nice clothing, too).
Cover up your tattoos, or people will snark that you are spending your welfare money on body art, even if you have had those tattoos for years, or you have a friend who is a tattoo artist who did them for free.
Are your shoes nice? Better not wear them in public, especially while at the grocery store paying for food with food stamps, because you MUST have somehow magically converted those food stamps into enough expendable income to buy those shoes. Never mind that they were a gift, or you bought them years ago, or that they actually have huge holes in the soles and tattered insoles because you can’t afford to replace them.
As a bonus, be sure not to have a job with flexible hours or work from home or work as a stay-at-home parent, because judgmental people will be on your ass and assume you are on welfare based on limited or non-existent evidence (even if you are not) and whine bitterly about having to contribute to social safety nets for the needy. That is right: You don’t even have to be on welfare at all, you can simply be out in public with your kid(s) during normal business hours and have total strangers assume you are on government assistance if you don’t look prosperous. Isn’t that cute?
But, hey, you know who will also be first in line with a hand out for benefits when they lose a job or fall on hard times, have family to house and feed, and qualify to receive them? That’s right: The same people who spend a hell of a lot of time claiming that people on government assistance are all undeserving and grifting the system and not really in need because they are, say, clean and are not wearing rags or being extra-careful to only appear in public while exhibiting visible signs of long-term poverty like, say, neglected teeth or unkempt hair and tattered sackcloth outfits.

Oh, you might also want to (5.) sell your car, too, unless it is a Piece Of Sh#t, because clearly no one receiving unemployment benefits or welfare could possibly have purchased a decent vehicle long prior to losing a job, getting a divorce, having unexpected healthcare expenses that devastated their finances, or just generally falling on hard times. You also don’t ever want to borrow a friend or family member’s car if you DO sell yours to make ends meet, because if it is even slightly nice or of recent vintage, you will be judged as not being needy enough for assistance of any sort.

Think this is an exaggeration? Some Republicans are busily trying to make it a law that if you own a car of any description, you will be unable to receive SNAP benefits (that’s food for the poor, if you aren’t familiar with the term) until you sell that car. This plan is Rush Limbaugh-approved, so you know it is empathetic and fair and kind-hearted and rational. (Yeah…no.) So while you are struggling to find work, and being told that you need reliable transportation to be hired (try to find a decently compensated job that does not require employees to have their own transportation), and being scorned for being unemployed, Republicans want to take your personal transportation away (while blocking any public transportation-related programs, mind you) or deny you help with food. Nice people.

Yes, you must sell everything you own that is even remotely nice, you must dress nicely (but not TOO nicely) when you are out in public, and you need to feel like a complete and utter failure before seeking help. Never mind that it is nearly impossible to get by without a mobile phone or reliable transportation these days.

Hey, poor person; hey, you unemployed person: your phone is too nice and isn’t there public transportation you could be using instead? Of course, anyone who has ever had to rely on public transportation realizes that it is unreliable, often late, sometimes fails to arrive at all, is almost always dirty and smelly and unpleasant, and if you need to get to work or home from work using it, then you get to hang out in unsafe places (often in the dark, and rarely covered to protect you from rain or heat or wind) by yourself (enjoy your mugging).

Of course, if you do wind up sitting on a sidewalk with a cup, these same as#@&%es will walk past you like you are invisible or hiss “get a job” at you.

Also, if you are not white, these rules apply double to you. Because the majority of welfare recipients in the United States are white.

…Wait, what?

You heard me.

“According to the U.S. government, the majority of welfare recipients are white, live in the suburbs, have two kids, want to work, and stay on welfare an average of only two years.”

Here is a much better reason than welfare recipients to lose faith in Amerika.

New Missouri Law Would Allow First Graders To Take NRA-Sponsored Gun Class
By Esther Yu-Hsi Lee on Jul 14, 2013 at 2:52 pm

First-graders may soon be able to enroll in a NRA sponsored gun class as a result of a public safety bill signed into law by Missouri Governor Jay Nixon (D) on Friday.
The measure requires school personnel to participate in at least eight hours of an “Active Shooter and Intruder Response Training” program conducted by law enforcement officials and allows schools to apply for financial grants for the NRA’s Eddie Eagle Gunsafe Program.
The NRA claims that the course, which features colorful cartoon character named Eddie Eagle, teaches children about gun safety. But research has failed to link the program to a reduction in children’s deaths from guns, with some studies showing that while “children could memorize Eddie’s simple advice about avoiding guns,” the instruction “went unheeded when children were put in real-life scenarios and asked to role-play a response.” Another report labeled Eddie Eagle “Joe Camel with feathers” and argued that the goal of the program was to recruit new NRA members.
The gun lobby itself has a long record of marketing guns to children and actively works to discredit groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) that want to stop children from encountering guns in the first place. Missouri now joins North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia in providing an endorsement of the NRA program through state laws. Ohio was the first state to fund the Eddie Eagle program.

Philo
Thanks those were a couple of good posts!
What is going on in this country? It's stranger than fiction.
It was also one of those southern states that indoctrinated the law to allow as young as 13 yr old girls to get an abortion WITHOUT their parents consent. Who votes for this sh#t?????
And 1st graders handling guns? My 1st grader can barely operate a bat.

I always get a chuckle when thinking of 2nd amendment people...do they think a "well organized militia" can stand up to our military???

best to rethink that argument if you are a 2nd amendment fanatic...

I think it a better policy to discuss making progress for the MAJORITY of the people...

for those who don't understand who that is I will spell it out for you:

poor african, poor hispanic, poor white, poor asian...

these are the same people serving in the military no militia in the world can beat BTW...

let's get to that point...WHY are these people serving in the military and being PROMISED things they will never recieve???

Racism is alive and well in this country DESPITE the efforts of many people to squash it...poor people of all races need to UNITE and SQUASH those who are enslaving humanity of all colors and stripes...

It is those same people or their descendents or those who would have done the same thing given the chance we need to FIGHT against...

All white people did NOT own slaves a FEW (percentage wise) did but those FEW brainwashed the poor whites into thier brand of thinking...to make the poor whites FEEL superior to a group of people...F*#K THAT!!!

Reparations are in order for indigenous natives and african slave descendants FROM the slave owner plantation owners and corporations that we can trace slave ownership back to...not from the general taxpayer but the people who actually profited from their captivity...

We poor people of all races need to UNITE worldwide against the people who would enslave all of us and can't wait to BTW...in fact they are in the process of doing it NOW...unless you think $9 an hour for hard work is a living and fair wage to earn...yes it is in 3rd world countries without labor regulation and environmental protections but corporations are exploiting this labor for less than $9 a DAY...

I cannot lose faith in America. America is an Idea. A good idea who's time must and will come. This land and it's government is going backwards fast but the idea cannot go anywhere but forward.

Freedom and justice for all. No double jeopardy, innocent till proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Land of the free home of the BRAVE. Because allowing freedom requires knowing YER GUNNA DIE ..but risking that to LIVE.

Freedom to believe without persecution, freedom to vote for you representatives. (not currently available since we vote for corporate sponsored representatives).

Government of the people by the people for the people.

History ebbs and flows.. now is not this lands time.. but progress is occurring if one looks at the big picture.

.unless you think $9 an hour for hard work is a living and fair wage to earn..

Pardon me if I'm wrong. But I always thought that by raising the minimum always raises the price of everything! I watched it happen over and over since the min. wage was $3.50 an hr.
Sure $15.00 an hr today would be great! But tomorrow a bigmac would be 7.50.

If your company makes a product so crappily that it cannot afford to pay it's workers enough to live decently.. then that company should cease to exist. Because it is working against the public interest. Same as a terrorist or a criminal is working against the public interest.

If your nation is allowing imports from a place that uses a different monetary system (and not making the proper adjustment for the conversion) such that your own indigenous products cannot price themselves competitively then your government is not working for it's people.. they are working for someone else.

I agree with climbski2 if your company cannot pay it's fair share of environmental regulations and fair labor costs it shouldn't be allowed to do sell it's product in the countries that do pay those costs...

we shouldn't be trying to go backwards to No regulations for the environment and the workers because of cost...

we should be moving forwards to make sure those costs reflect the true price of doing business...

Keep on keeping on Blue. I don't think I agree with you much, but I'm glad you fight the fight because I agree with the other side of the coin even less, though I started out 35 years ago firmly in that camp. I don't know what the answer is, but I still find some comfort in these words:

Shine, Republic

The quality of these trees, green height; of the sky,
shining, of water, a clear flow; of rock hardness
And reticence: each is noble in its quality. The love of
freedom has been the quality of Western man.

There is a stubborn torch that flames from Marathon to
Concord, its dangerous beauty binding three ages
Into one time: the waves of barbarism and civilization
have eclipsed but have never quenched it.

For the Greeks the love of beauty, for Rome of ruling;
for the present age the passionate love of discovery;
But in one noble passion we are one; and Washington,
Luther, Tacitus, Aeschylus, one kind of man.

And you, America, that passion made you. You were
not born to prosperity, you were born to love freedom.
You did not say” en masse,” you said “independence.”
But we cannot have all the luxuries and freedom also.

Freedom is poor and laborious; that torch is not safe but
hungry, and often requires blood for its fuel.
You will tame it against it burn too clearly, you will hood
it like a kept hawk, you will perch it on the wrist of Caesar.

But keep the traditions, conserve the forms, the observances,
keep the spot sore. Be great carve deep your heel-marks.
The states of the next age will no doubt remember you,
and edge their love of freedom with contempt of luxury.